Apprentice Week 10

2010-11-23 13:00:00

The task for the Apprentice’s this week was set by Phillips and Harvey Norman and involved the candidates creating a cinema advert for a new Phillips coffee machine. Bill mixed the teams by moving Panos over to Elev8, and then selected him as project manager for the team and Ciara as project manager for Fusion.

The candidates had a full day to come up with their concept before filming began on day two. Both teams seemed to have difficulty coming up with original ideas as the focus groups weren’t impressed with either. Elev8 took the clever route and completely changed their concept but Fusion seemed to take the safe route and only tweaked theirs slightly. I didn’t understand why they went ahead with an idea that the focus group thought was boring and unimaginative when they still had time to change it.

For the filming on day two Barry was director for Elev8 and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted and gave direction well to both the crew and actors. Fusion on the other hand weren’t as clear on direction. Although Jamie was appointed director he seemed to spend most of the day arguing with Ciara which was very unprofessional. Throughout the task Elev8 appeared to be the stronger team until it came to the presentation. Barry volunteered to do the presentation as Panos didn’t feel confident, but it could have resulted in a loss for the team after Barry stumbled on his words and had to keep checking his notes.

After viewing both ads however it was quite clear that Elev8’s was much more professional and more in line with the brief they were given. Bill agreed and in the boardroom chose Elev8 as this week’s winners. Project manager Ciara McManus had no choice on who to bring into the boardroom with her as there was only Jamie Moran and Michelle Massey left in the team. As it was her fourth time in the boardroom Bill chose to fire Ciara. However, on a surprising twist Bill also fired Jamie once Ciara had left the boardroom. I definitely agree with Bill’s decision as both of them underperformed in this task and deserved to be fired.

With five candidates still left we might see another double firing next week but we’ll just have to wait until Monday to find out!